Posts filed under 'Feeding a Crowd'
While this is not a quick recipe, it is certainly an old favorite from the original Greens cookbook by "vegetarianista" Deborah Madison. This is a perfect vegetarian dinner, especially for a large group on a warm summer night.
Basically this roulade is a flat, filled souffle. You can fill it with anything you like, but I feel that less is more with a roulade.
This one was filled with drained ricotta cheese and pesto and the topped with a very simple salsa of fresh vine ripened tomatoes, some fresh chopped garlic and basil, a little EVVO and salt and pepper. Served alongside chard (stay tuned for recipe) and Israeli couscous with peas, our group of 12 had plenty to feast on.
For the Roulade:
10 eggs at room temperature
5 cups of milk
1/2 tsp nutmeg
8 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup flour
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put a few dabs of butter on the pan to help anchor the paper in. Lightly butter and flour the paper, knocking off any excess flour.
Separate the yolks and the whites; lighty beat the yolks and set them aside. Heat the milk and make the roux by melting the butter, add the flour, and, stirring cook for 1 to 2 minutes over medium heat until the roux is lightly colored.
Add the heated milk, and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring constantly; then remove from the heat and season with 1 teaspoon salt and the nutmeg. Gradually whisk some of the hot mixture into the yolks to warm them; then return to the pan and combine with the rest of the roux.
In a large bowl, whisk or beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until smooth firm peaks form. Stir about a quarter of the whites and half the grated cheese and the milk-egg yolk mixture; then gently fold in the rest of the whites. Pour the whole mixture onto the baking sheet, spread it to fill all the comers, and sprinkle rest of the cheese over the surface. Bake until the top is nicely browned and puffed, about 15 minutes.
Remove the souffle from the oven and let it cool. Carefully turn it out onto a large flat cutting board, with a tea towel on it, by turning over the pan. Remove the paper. It is now ready to be filled and rolled.
Filling: If you’d like an extra punch of basil, scatter a few whole leaves over the ricotta mixture before rolling the roulade.
1 lb. tub plus 1/2 cup ricotta cheese, drained
1 cup prepared pesto (or Marcela Hazan’s tried and true pesto)
salt and pepper to taste
Place the drained ricotta into a bowl and stir in the pesto. Season with salt and pepper.
Assembling the Roulade:
With the long side of the roulade facing you, spread the ricotta/pesto mixture across 2/3 of the roulade. Using the towel gently guide the the roulade into a log form. If possible, take the whole cutting board and place it into your refrigerator and let the roulade sit for about 20 minutes.
Otherwise, you can cut the roulade in half and place it on to 2 smaller plates and refrigerate. You can assemble the salsa a this point. Remove the roulade from the refrigerator and slice into 1/2 inch pieces. Arrange on a serving platter or directly onto your dinner plates, top with the salsa and enjoy!
August 30th, 2010
Perfect for an August dinner, grilled veggies and crispy coleslaw are sure to please. Portobello mushrooms are meaty and easy to grill. The key is to make sure they are properly marinated. I think 24 hours is perfect but 8 hours is the minimum.
The coleslaw recipe is adapted from Cook’s Illustrated. The key here is to salt the cabbage and let sit in a colander for 1 to 4 hours. It makes a huge difference. I really enjoyed this recipe as it is not heavily laden with mayonnaise and is quite refreshing just as coleslaw should be.
Marinade for Vegetable Skewers
Makes 1 Cup, enough for 4 skewers
4 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup EVOO
1 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. each salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp. thyme
Whisk all ingredients together. You can use any vegetables you want.
I like the combination of yellow squash, red onion, portobelllo mushrooms, red bell peppers and green bell peppers. Marinate the mushrooms for at least 8 hours or as long as overnight. Place a colander over a bowl. Drain the mushrooms reserving the marinade.
Transfer the marinade to a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Marinate the remaining vegetables and marinate for 1 hour, at room temperature. Drain the vegetables
Skewer the marinated vegetables with the portobello mushrooms. Grill the skwers over medium to low heat for 5 minutes per side.
Buttermilk Coleslaw adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
1 pound cabbage, shredded and salted
(see instructions for salting below) with 1 tsp salt
2 medium carrots, shredded
1 fennel bulb, shredded
5 Tbsp. minced chives or 3 green onions, chopped fine
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
2 Tbsp. sour cream
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. cider vinegar
2 shallots, minced (or 2 Tbsp. freeze-dried)
1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
Garnish
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, rough chop or just whole leaves
To salt the cabbage, toss the cabbage and salt together in a colander. Set the colander over a bowl or in a sink and let it drain for 1 to 4 hours. Wrap the cabbage in a large kitchen towel and dry slightly. Place into a large mixing bowl and add the carrots, fennel, chives and shallots. Save the parsley until just before serving.
Mix together the remaining ingredients to make the dressing, whisk them well and pour over the vegetables. Allow to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes so that it gets nice and cold.
Just before serving, add the parsley and toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Coleslaw will be good for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
August 9th, 2010
I have been playing around with fun, quick things to make-ahead for cocktail parties. Working with pre-made frozen puff pastry sheets couldn’t be easier.
There are so many things you can do with these cocktail sticks. You can season them with hard cheeses, spice blends and savory jams, or make them into dessert sticks by brushing them with raspberry jam before baking or dip them into chocolate once they are baked.
You can twist them or make the, straight. Better yet, you can make them ahead, freeze the sticks, then always have them on hand - Instant, impressive hors d’oeuvres.
I buy pre-made puff pastry from Dufour. This is an excellent product. You can find it at Whole Foods in the freezer section. Their website is not working at the moment but check it at a later date to locate other places that sell Dufour.
It’s not inexpensive but if you consider the time it takes to make good puff pastry (and if you feel the need to do so then I highly recommend Martha Holmberg’s Puff) - Dufour is well worth the money. I try to always have a package in the freezer as it’s so versatile and I don’t have the time to make puff pastry.
Here is my most recent savory twist:
Z’atar Spiced Puff Sticks
There are several ways you can make za’atar. I purchase mine pre-blended from The Savory Spice shop but add more sumac and nigella to the blend.
Allow the puff pastry to defrost for about 2 hours before using. Remove from package. There are 2 sheets, I usually only need one for making sticks for a party of 12.
On a floured surface, place the dough and sprinkle with more flour. Roll out until the you have a nice even rectangle. Cut the puff into long thin strips, about 6 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. I use a pastry cutter because I like the ruffled edges, but a knife will work too.
Brush the strips with egg whites and sprinkle on the za’atar, extra nigella and sumac. Have a cookie sheet ready that is lined with parchment paper. Gently pick up each end of one strip and place on the cookie sheet with several twist of the wrists, lightly lift and pull the strips and then place them down on the cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining strips.
They can fit relatively closely together on the cookie sheet, just don’t have them touching. Press each end firmly down. Once cookie sheet is filled, place the pan into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Once they are frozen, you can store in a freezer safe container until you want to bake them.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the sticks for 12 minutes. Allow to cool before removing them from the cookie sheet. Enjoy!
June 23rd, 2010
Having fish on Fridays is easy if you plan ahead. This dish was based on the presentation made by Michael Psilakis of Anthos on the Martha Stewart show.
I was able to get several small whole red snappers. The best thing about this dish is that once you get it in the oven, you have 45 minutes to get everything else ready. He has many more ingredients in his dish but mine worked great too.
I made flageot beans the night before and roasted baby carrots as an accompaniment. You could easily serve this with just a salad and bread. If you have a clay pot this would be even better as the aromatics would steam into the fish flesh. I don’t have clay pot big enough for 8 to 10 but this recipe could easily be cut in half and fish filets used instead of whole fish. The bones in the whole fish make the broth richer. Delicious!
Whole Baked Red Snappers a la Anthos.
Serve 8 to 10
5 whole Red Snappers, heads, off, scaled, etc. (your fish monger can do this for you at no extra charge)
EVVO
1 lemon, thinly sliced
6 sprigs of thyme
6 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 Bay Leaves
8 cloves of garlic
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
3 plum tomatoes cut into wedges
2 Yukon Gold potatoes sliced into 1/2 inch rounds
16 pitted Kalamata Olives
1/3 cup capers
1 1/2 cups white wine
Mini red and yellow peppers, sliced in half or left whole
salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Rinse the fish well and pat dry. Pour a liberal amount of olive oil into the bottom of a large baking dish (a glass Pyrex lasagne dish works well). Place the fish in the center.
Inside each fish spread the herbs, garlic, bay leaves and some lemon slices. Salt and pepper the outsides of the fish. Cover the fish with the red onion and then on top of that the remaining lemon slices.
Scatter the remaining vegetables all around the sides of the fish and sprinkle the top with the capers and olives. Pour in the wine and then cover the whole pan with aluminum foil. Place in the oven and steam-bake for 45 minutes or until all the vegetable are tender to the prick of a knife and the fish is easily flaked.
Discard the herbs, and place the vegetables on a serving platter. Gently lift the top part of each fish off and place on top of vegetables. Remove the center bone of the fish (this should come up in one easy piece). Place remaining fish on platter. Taste the pan juices. If they need it add salt and pepper. Pour over fish and vegetables and serve.
June 19th, 2010
Back in my catering days, I probably cooked off thousands of these Corn Cloud Pancakes. Made from a base of flour and cornmeal enriched with cream cheese, egg yolks, corn and scallions, these savory pancakes are more substantial than traditional pancakes. I so love their versatility.
Corn Clouds were a staple hors d’oeuvres back in the ’80’s in the Bay Area. While working for Food Talk Caterers, I made these by the dozen and topped them with everything from salsa and guacamole to smoked trout, creme fraiche and tobiko.
We easily made hundreds during brunch service at Val 21. Corn Clouds are also a great way to enjoy any leftover corn for a one plate vegetarian dinner.
Corn Cloud Pancakes
Serves 6.
You can easily reduce the amounts by half to feed 3 to 4. Makes enough mini pancakes for 25 people as an hors d’oeuvres.
1 1/2 cups flour (gluten free flour can be used too)
1/2 cup cornmeal (using white is a nice alternative too)
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
6 eggs separated
6 ounces of cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup minced green onions
1 1/2 cup fresh corn, off a cooked cobb (you can also use frozen corn)
Hot pepper sauce like Choula or Tapatio
Clarified butter for frying or vegetable oil
Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix well. Melt the butter. Separate the eggs. Mix the yolks with the cream cheese and buttermilk until smooth. Stir in the melted butter.
Add the scallions and corn to flour mixture. Whip the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry and mix well. Now fold the egg whites in to the batter.
Place a nice sized scoop onto a preheated griddle that has been lightly greased with butter or oil. These pancakes will not bubble up so check them by slightly lifting the edges to see if they are golden on the under side, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Flip and cook for another 4 minutes. Top with salsa, sour cream and guacamole, or smoked salmon, whipped cream cheese and chives. Off hot sauce on the side. These would also be delicious served with cold avocado soup (recipe coming soon).
June 7th, 2010
Have you been looking for a new potato salad for your picnic table? I made this recipe for Mother’s Day and I quite liked it. Posted on allrecipes.com, it got my attention because its author inherited the recipe from her mother-in-law over 25 years ago. Potato salad enriched with cream? What’s not to like?
I made mine with Yukon golds which gave the salad a pale yellow hue. The egg/cream dressing was intriguing, smooth and delicious. It had just the right amount of zing from the vinegar and a certain richness form the eggs and cream. It was certainly a lovely change from traditional potato salads.
Potato Salad with Cream from allrecipes.com
2 1/2 pounds potatoes
1/2 cup cider vinegar, boiling
4 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp. butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp. finely chopped onion
2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper
Peel the potatoes and add to a large pot of boiling salted water. Cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes. Drain, cool and cube. Place into a large bowl and set aside.
In a double boiler, bring vinegar to a boil. Gradually beat in eggs and cook over simmering water until thickened, whisking often. The mixture will be thick like mayonnaise. Whisk in butter. Whisk in cream, parsley, onion, mustard, salt, pepper and cayenne. Pour over hot potatoes and combine. Stir until evenly blended. Sprinkle with additional parsley (if desired). Refrigerate until serving time.
This salad can be made one day ahead.
Barr and I will be signing off for a few days to enjoy Memorial Day Weekend. Coming up soon on Flavorista: More on Homemade Ice Cream, Wheat Berries 101 and Super Summer Tipples.
Have a wonderful holiday weekend flavoristas. May you not get stuck in traffic. May you sip delicious drinks and enjoy terrific treats at all the festivities you attend.
Cheers! See you next week!
May 28th, 2010
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